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AMAZING SKI CHALETSVail

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Established as one of the world's top ski resorts, Vail offers superb accommodation, an attractive village centre and the largest ski area in America, stretching 7 miles from its east to west boundaries! Vail village itself is a colourful, characterful resort centre offering a fabulous apres ski atmosphere. The Lionshead area at the foot of the gondola and high speed chairlift provides a second focal point to the village centre, with its own selection of bars, shops and restaurants. Vail's sister village of Beaver Creek is smaller, with infinite charm and elegance and the ski area at Beaver Creek has been extended by the addition of the Bachelors Gulch area and a connecting lift to Arrowhead.

With the choice of six lifts up to the mountain from different points along the valley it would be very unfortunate to get caught in a queue. From the Mid-Vail the slopes fan out in all directions and are mainly intermediate territory. The Back Bowls near the top of the mountain are best for beginners, although there are some drop offs and tree-skiing opportunities for experts too. The Golden Peak terrain park features a 400ft super-pipe with 18ft walls. There is also a smaller park in Bwana.

Life off the slopes starts in Vail Village, an Austrian-inspired hub of activity featuring range of restaurants and shops. At Eagle's Nest there is an activity centre open in the evening with tubing, skating and snowmobiling. Nightlife is varied and lively with a fantastic choice of bars and entertainment.

WHAT'S new

New for 2016/17

The sluggish Sun Up triple chair in the back bowls will be changed for a high-speed quad. That means that all main chairlifts on Vail mountain will now be high-speed. The new Sun Up chair will enhance capacity by 65% to 2,400 people an hour and will cut down the ride time by a half to make it four minutes.

New for 2015/16

The Avanti fast quad above Lionshead was replaced by a six-pack, which improved the capacity by 30%.

best FOR

One of the largest areas in the USA especially great skiing for courageous intermediates

The Back Bowls are large areas of treeless terrain not typically found in the US